This year the Locarno Festival will celebrate its 70th anniversary. The Filmmakers Academy is working on something special to match this great achievement. For this reason applications for the edition 2017 of the Filmmakers Academy will not be opened. Next year applications will run as usual.

The Filmmakers Academy is a Locarno Festival initiative for 15 young filmmakers from around the world. Participants must have completed one or more short films, plus a maximum of one full-length feature. The age limit is 40.

Daily interaction with directors, producers and other industry professionals with an international profile will allow participants to explore their own directorial identities and hone their professional skills, working on the development, production and distribution/broadcast stages of the creative process for film and audiovisual media, in accordance with an overall thematic focus that varies from year to year.

Alongside the sessions with industry professionals, from 2014 Filmmakers Academy trainees will share the Locarno experience with the young talents selected for the Residence program of the Cannes Festival Cinéfondation: a unique opportunity to network with promising filmmakers engaged on what is widely regarded as one of the most prestigious training paths in the film world. We are pleased to note that one of the directors picked for the 2013 Locarno Filmmakers Academy, Marcelo Martinessi from Paraguay, and one of the directors picked for the 2014 Locarno Filmmakers Academy, Serhat Karaaslan from Turkey, were subsequently selected for the Cinéfondation Résidence.